The paperwork at the start of a school year is utterly overwhelming, but even compared to that, there’s nothing that causes a dull ache in the pit of my stomach like that one single sheet of paper you never want your child to bring home from school:
The Letter stating that a child in class has lice.
My mind immediately starts spinning about checking my kids’ hair, how many items in the house we’d have to wash and treat (couches??? How do you even do that???), how many times we might have to re-do the process because getting rid of lice completely is such a difficult task, how many heads of hair we have in the house, how often my hair has been down in the past week, and the worst part – how ironic it would be to avoid nasty chemicals so often in all of our lives and feel doomed to dousing my kids’ heads (and our whole house) with practically caustic chemicals to kill the lice and nits successfully.
Is there no natural method to get ride of lice?
Let’s just say that this is the first product I was so happy to NOT review before sharing it on the blog!
I have a bottle, and I’ll be so glad to have it on hand in case of the dreaded letter (along with the number for customer service with real people who have tons of experience helping families through the lice problem)…but I truly hope I never need it.
ClearLice Eradicates Lice in Your Home – Naturally – and for Good!
This post is sponsored by ClearLice.
I’m impressed by the ingredients in ClearLice and the comprehensive system to totally get rid of lice, in the hair and in the home.
The process begins with enzymes that mimic the natural molting process of the louse – so the enzymes, created by fermentation of microbial organisms, actually break down the hard outer coating of both lice and nits.
This allows the other ingredients in ClearLice, from homeopathic remedies (Natrum Muriaticum) to an herb that may also help control dandruff (Wrightia Tinctoria) and a plant that is used as a natural insecticide (Acorus Calamus), to penetrate the insect and do their dirty work. Add in tea tree and neem oil to finish off the lice and peppermint oil to both destroy and prevent, plus coconut oil to keep the scalp healthy and you’ve got a powerful solution with no synthetic chemicals or harsh pesticides on your skin.
As I said, I wasn’t able to test out the effectiveness of this product (darn…), but my experience with enzymes in cleaners, like laundry treatments, has been very positive.
The full lice treatment kit includes shampoo and conditioner for at least one person’s head, the all-important nit comb, plus solutions for your laundry and home environment (aha, all you have to do is spray your couch with this stuff, not fumigate your home and wear full gas masks for a week!).
What About Home Remedies for Lice?
There are a lot of natural remedies for lice floating around the Internet, and I’ve been collecting them to share in a post for over a year now.
But reports of results had been spotty. I have a dear little family member in my life (not in my household) who has experienced the social trauma of being teased about having lice, so I know that it’s more than just a time-sucking hassle to have to address returning lice and failed attempts at eradication.
Natural home remedy possibilities include:
- coconut oil
- aloe vera
- tea tree oil (in shampoo or an olive oil carrier)
- combing daily until you see no signs for 10 days (coupled with other remedies)
- professional salons ($$$)
- mayonnaise, shower cap and heat
- eucalyptus oil
- shave the head (boys only, most likely!)
- vinegar and mineral oil
- electric lice comb
- heating and killing with a hair dryer
- most treatments require daily application or once a week, 3-4 times
I notice that a number of those ideas are in the ClearLice formula, but the enzymes to penetrate the hard outer shell are vital as well. Head lice treatments do often fail, which can be a result of not following directions, reinfestation via the environment, OR because there are now drug-resistant lice (and another article!)
The recommendation when the harsh chemicals don’t work to get rid of the lice?
Don’t reapply. Try a natural solution instead.
Really? So why not start there?
The fact that ClearLice hijacks a normal louse process mechanically rather than entering their system chemically assures me that they won’t develop resistance.
Natural Lice Prevention is Easy
Far better not to get lice in the first place, of course.
Lice don’t really like “stuff” in people’s hair – ironically considering the stigma that lice infest dirty homes, they prefer clean hair.
So the simple solution to lice prevention is to NOT wash your child’s hair daily. Once or twice a week should suffice.
You can add a layer of insurance by adding a layer of goo – a gel or a mousse, light coconut oil, a dab of pure shea butter, or hair butter from MadeOn would all work.
If you get the Dreaded Letter and want to really increase your insurance, ClearLice also has a preventative shampoo and leave-in conditioner that worried parents may want to have on hand.
Other Back to School Issues:
- Do hand sanitizers contribute to superbugs??
- Bringing sanitizer or soap to school? Read this first.
- Healthy lunch packing ideas (and 35% off on The Healthy Lunch Box through Labor Day!)
- 10 Bread-free sandwich alternatives for healthy food on the go
- Reusable sandwich bag review (newly updated last week!!)
- The best Bento lunch box options that LAST
Sean says
$95 to treat a single person or $150 for a family of four seems a little pricy IMHO…
Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Sean,
I read some of the testimonials at ClearLice and was happy to see that some people were able to treat more than one with the single treatment. Many other conventional treatments cost this much and more though, yikes! — Katie
Meg says
Mayonnaise and heat have worked really well for us. We tried other things and none worked nearly as well. And you end up with nicely moisturized hair to boot.
Deanna says
We have not battled lice, but my daughter’s very huggy best friend had them and we were spared. I could not figure out how we got so lucky until I read your article. With four children we only wash their hair once or twice a week so we must not have been clean enough for the lice. 🙂
Laurie says
One of the five of us in our family just got lice this summer. We’ve never had it before and I dove in head first (no pun intended) to the latest literature on lice treatments. There’s a lot of scientific research out there! Why is it resistant? What really works? What is its life cycle? I learned way more about lice than I ever wanted to learn! We caught it early, beat it naturally (combination of olive oil suffocation, tea tree oil and other essential oils to kill it, combing with a good quality comb, and minimal cleaning), and spent only a few dollars. Am I afraid of getting it again? Absolutely! Treating it wasn’t what I would call summer fun. But now we know how to get rid of it and even how to prevent it!
Michelle says
ClearLice is AHH-MAZING! I can unfortunately speak from experience and for several other families. This natural mom gave into the chemicals when other natural ties failed. ClearLice is worth every penny, even the expedited shipping! It works immediately and seeing the eggs fall off in the shower brings shouts of joy. I tell everyone about ClearLice!
Johane says
My daughters had lice a few years back. It was… ho.rri.fy.ing! (I have a sensory perception issue, so I was nearly apoplectic while having to deal with this…) What made it only slightly less ghastly was the fact that I was able to kill the little buggers before I had to get them out of my girl’s very long, very thin hair.
This is what I did:
1. I drenched their head with Listerine (or an alcohol based mouthwash will do). I put the Listerine in a dollar store squeeze bottle, and I went at their head as if the Listerine was a hair colour treatment. I parted the hair into sections, and placed the nozzle of the bottle at the root of the hair, and proceeded to drown the little buggers in alcohol.
2. Once all of their hair was drenched, I placed a dollar store shower cap on their head, a towel around their neck (to catch the dribbles), and we watched TV for 30-60 minutes.
3. Once the waiting period was over, I rinsed their heads really well.
4. To kill any nits in the eggs, I took my flat iron, set it on the highest setting, and with the hair still wet, proceeded to thoroughly steam the nits.
5. Once that was all done, I took our handy-dandy Licemeister comb (http://www.headlice.org/licemeister/) and I was then able to proceed to remove every single nit, without worry of seeing something squirm.
NOTE: The Licemeister was the only comb able to deal with my daughter’s very, very fine hair – and even then she still had some that could fit 2 or more side by side… so tweezers were necessary in that case…)
I’ve had to deal with this issue a couple of times, and each time this was the best solution for us. The first time, it took a few tries to deal with the issue, but once we tried this, we’ve never looked back.
Why does it work? I’m not sure. I suspect it has to do with the alcohol content of the mouthwash. If a person can die of alcohol poisoning, I guess so can lice. Plus, it’s not likely that lice will ever be able to develop some type of immunity to alcohol, as they seem to have been able to do with other medicinal lice solutions.
I hope you never have to deal with lice again.
Emily says
Our daycare recommends the mayonnaise and vinegar treatment over commercial treatments, and it worked for us. Slather head in mayo, cover with a shower cap, let sit for three hours. Wash the mayo out with Dawn dish soap, then rinse with vinegar. Then do the dreaded combing. The theory is that the mayo suffocates the bugs and the vinegar dissolves the nits.
Fairy Tales lice repel shampoo and conditioner along with extra tea tree oil have helped keep them away- KNOCK ON WOOD.